Garth Brooks has been told to hold it just one cotton pickin’ minute when it comes to releasing a new version of his signature super hit “Friends in Low Places.” First announced Thursday, September 3rd, the re-recording to mark the 25th Anniversary of the song includes contributions from Florida Georgia Line, Jason Aldean, Keith Urban, and George Strait. Remaking the country classic with Bro-Country’s finest like Florida Georgia Line and Jason Aldean didn’t sit very well with some country fans, but that’s apparently not the only ones registering a beef with the idea.

The “Friends in Low Places” remake was reportedly going to be part of a re-release of Garth’s blockbuster 1990 album No Fences, also celebrating its 25th Anniversary, and was going to be sold through a currently-unnamed retailer who was guaranteed a low price for one million copies. Garth did a similar deal through McDonald’s in 1994, selling The Garth Brooks Collection with a portion of the sales going to the Ronald McDonald House charity.

However rights holders to the songs on No Fences balked at the idea of selling the Silver Edition of the CD at a discounted rate. Though Garth himself contributed on some of the songs and owns the masters of the recordings, Universal and Sony ATV said no way Jose to the discounted songwriter royalty rate that needed to be approved to allow the deal to go through.

Royalty rates for songs have been in the news lately, stemming from the move to streaming music spurned by Spotify, Pandora, and other companies. Song publishers have been holding firm on rates to make sure songwriters are not taken advantage of in deals. Universal told Billboard‘s Melinda Newman who broke the news, “While we believe it is inappropriate to comment on any specific negotiation, we are proud to report that UMPG will continue to approach every negotiation with the same guiding principle: Our songwriters come first.”

Garth himself also chimed in, saying it was not his intention to hurt songwriters, and understood why the publishers were taking a stand. “That’s been my whole thing since day one; you have to protect the songwriters.”

The concern is that giving Garth Brooks a discounted rate for songwriting royalties would set a bad precedent for future releases, re-releases, or other music projects. However the irony is that the songwriters for No Fences will miss out financially if no deal on the 25th Anniversary Edition goes through. Why? Because even though the No Fences songwriters would have been paid at a discounted rate for the songs, they would have at least been paid. With a guarantee of one million units sold, it would have meant $45,000 per track being generated for the songwriters. But if the deal doesn’t go through at all, the songwriters will make virtually nothing. No Fences has only sold 4,000 copies in 2015.

“Garth Brooks has done more to generate income from these songs than anybody else,” said Pat Alger to Billboard. Alger was a contributing songwriter on two of No Fences biggest hits: “The Thunder Rolls” and “Unanswered Prayers.”

“On the first several uses, we got paid full rate and then he started coming up with different packages — this may be the sixth or seventh time he’s found a way to re-energize this 25-year-old material. In a day when 50,000 sales really impresses somebody, we’re being guaranteed over a million sales on this. As a songwriter who has watched his income diminish, to give a half rate to someone who’s going to guarantee me a million or a million and a half copies, doesn’t seem like I’m giving up much.”

Nonetheless, the 25th Anniversary edition of No Fences, and the new version of “Friends in Low Places” appear to be in peril unless a deal can be reached between publishers, Garth’s camp, and the so far unnamed retailer. The idea was to release a remixed and remastered package in November to take advantage of holiday sales. But now it could either be delayed, or not come out at all.

Some country fans not looking forward to Florida Georgia Line singing on “Friends in Low Places,” might be happy for the reprieve.

35 Comments

Fuzzy TwoShirts in Space
September 4, 2015 @
6:03 pm

If it doesn’t go through do you guys want me to turn this ship around? isn’t this the whole reason I’m out here..? trapped in a tiny spaceship with Gary LeVox? trying to find a world free from bad music… He ate all my cheesepuffs guys… If this doesn’t happen after all I just might turn around… Gas prices near Abante 3480 are through the roof….

I hope traveling with Gary in your tiny spaceship isn’t too bad, hopefully you won’t run into any Daleks, though I’m sure you might have some way to contact the Doctor if that happens. Hell actually you know what? He might even help you find a world without bad music.

(I’m hoping you get the Doctor Who references lol, if not then you can just ignore this its fine, I’m just having fun going along with your post, it is really funny

That’s why I’m doing it, to entertain. Hopefully the other commenters take the time to follow my adventures haha. Yes, I got the references. I’d be more afraid of finding a Tardis though. Gary would keep it as a lunchbox… the sad part is he’d constantly be refilling it.

And the other sad part about that is the Eleventh would probably like the idea so long he keeps an area of the Tardis filled with never ending fish fingers and custard. Leaving his companions Amy and Rory(or Clara) to opt for riding in the ship with you cause I imagine they may be annoyed with Eleventh and Gary using the Tardis as one big giant lunchbox.

Garth owns the rights to the music and the masters since he paid for everything. He saw ahead back in the day and still nobody does it. He gave the album to the label as a full package. He was paid a 16% royalty back out of the sales of the album. Average for the other way around currently on a major label is about .092% or $9.22 out of every thousand. Not a major fan out of any of the artists except George strait but guess we will have to wait and hear it. Florida Georgia line did a decent remix on an Alabama song. Time will tell.

I listened mostly to black metall and it’s less punishing brethren death metall when this music was released. Reviews in Norway gave Garth two guns waaay down at the time, calling it soulless pop-country. How times have changed.

But in this case, Garth Brooks is protecting songwriters from himself, which means they’re going to receive less money if the deal doesn’t go through. It’s a pretty convoluted situation to figure out a rooting interest.

The publishers don’t give a damn about songwriters. This deal would most likely be a windfall for songwriters like Pat Alger who haven’t seen big royalty checks in twenty years… and royalty checks in mechanicals (album sales royalties not airplay royalties) are non-existent nowadays. The truth is, this is a negotiation and the publishers can hold out. Garth needs the momentum he could get with these new and popular acts. The songwriters would love to have this money. It is common practice to take a negotiated rate when you are guaranteed 500,000 to 1,000,000 in sales.

Garth and George together is something I have wished for, for a long long time. If this goes ahead, it will sound brilliant. I mean come on, George and Garth singing the third verse to Friends in Low Places. How can you not like that?

All he has to do to make it really special is drop the other guys and bring in Randy Travis!

There’s a few degrees of separation between your premise and reality. The truth is we have no idea what George Strait feels about Florida Georgia Line, or the opinions of this website. In all likelihood, he will never see Florida Georgia Line when he goes into the studio to record his part.

If Garth, George or any country icon or legend or any country artist period agrees to be on a recorded song with FGL or any bro it’s a big permanent endorsement of bro-country and I bet FGL or their marketers think it will give them country cred. It would also mean newcomers like Maddie and Tae stand up for country more than Garth and the king of country. The bros and their marketers are always trying to find ways to convince people bro-country is country. We know the truth is it’s not even pop country, it’s weak, generic pop, rock, hip-hop and rap. Some call it arena rock but real arena rock is better. Also the bros tend to exclude everyone except other bros when they collaborate and tour so why shouldn’t country artists treat them the same way? Keep them in the Friend Zone or Bro Zone.

Trig, I’m quite surprised by the pass you give George Strait on that one. All opinions count the same and mine is that it is bullshit an icon of real country like him would collaborate with FGL. Calling it anything short of a collaboration (assuming it is true) would be false IMO.

I’m not giving a pass to George. To me, the entire thing is a bad idea, and George should be included in that as much as anyone. But my guess is, Garth asked George to be on the track with some others, and George, the consummate gentleman, agreed. It’s not like he sought out to collaborate with Florida Georgia Line. It doesn’t make the idea any less awful, but George wasn’t the instigator.

And who knows, the track may not suck. All the grief it deserves, in the end we have to listen to the thing before we rip it apart and everyone involved.

Fair enough. Valid point. I’m just so disgusted about the thought. I’ve seen george play many times including on the back of his boat in a marina in Mexico with about 10 people. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn BK doesn’t even plug in during concerts.
Good job as always trig.

I’m not understanding all the harping on GS for this. George isn’t touring or making new music anymore. But, here’s chance to make some money for a contribution to a song that is one of the 10 most recognizable Country releases of all time (to the mainstream, if not the WHOLE of the radio public), and to just be a PART of it. It’s probably just a cool concept to him. People act like traditional country heroes need to just boycott everything that has something else attached to it. Strait was still going to award shows and accepting trophies this past awards season, and those were painted with all stripes of Bro colors. Also, let’s not forget that before any of these Bros were putting out songs on the radio, Strait released an album with some of the most offensive use of auto-tune ever in Country Music. I mean…the song “Stars on The Water”… was it written for a Buck Rodgers biopic that never happened? Because I feel like I’m in some weird robotic neverland every time I hear it.

Look, in my life I have a philosophy that your heart can only hold so much hate. I make it a rule of three. You can hate three things. One of my three is FLGALine. At the core of everything I am is a distinct hatred for everything they are. If a criminal mastermind put that duo and a million orphans in a death trap and said I could save the orphans, but FGL would live too… our global population would drop a bit that day.

But, if Garth Brooks called me up and said, “Hey Dukes, I want you to be a part of this project with me, Aldean (who just BARELY misses out on being on “the list”) and FGL”. Man, I’d be on a plane as soon as I hung up the phone.

Is that an endorsement of FGL? Hell no. It’s an endorsement of Garth Brooks. That’s how powerful the allure of working with him is.

Not saying anything new here, but as a Garth fan prior to his return from retirement, his comeback has left me scratching my head. So he’s made a gazillion dollars on his tour; but his attempts to reach a larger market just seems again to damage the reputation he built with his fans. The cluster that was his Ireland return & now this awful idea make him look like an overgrown baby who surrounds himself with yes men who only look out for his gain. This picture is probably in retrospect closer to the truth than the earnest trailblazer we knew. Again, more respect to George Strait for his consistency & class.

So what type of reissue are we talking about, exactly? You mention “remixed”, but in what sense? New mixes that sound completely different, or simply the general remixing that goes hand-in-hand with the remastering process to bring out the fidelity? And how many “bonus” tracks are expected? Just the one that’s the subject here or some others? No doubt Garth’ll try to throw in some deluxe artwork as well…

I really have no idea. The “sources” are saying the album is remixed, and remastered, and beyond being able to hear it (which we might not have a chance to), it’s hard to give an answer. Garth is obviously going to have to do enough stuff with the reissue to entice a lot of folks to buy an album they already have. Haven’t seen any chatter about bonus tracks. That’s not really Garth’s style. The “Low Places” remake would be the bonus, I guess.